Ten Sports targets Rs 300 mn from tri-series

Ten Sports is targeting an advertising revenue of Rs 300 million from the tri-series involving India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

The sports broadcaster has roped in Compaq as the title and co-presenting sponsor for the next month’s cricket series that begins on 8 September in Colombo.

“Ten Sports is targeting an ad revenue of Rs 300 million from India,” a source tells Indiantelevision.com.

Ten Sports has already signed Maruti as an associate sponsor and plans to rope in five more.

Taj Television India GM Rukin Kizilbash says that 50 per cent of the inventory has been sold thus far. “Spots are going for Rs 250,000 per 10 seconds for the four-match series,” he adds, while declining to say what revenue the sports channel is targeting.

Kizilbash says Ten Sports is on the verge of signing a two- wheeler company as a co-presenting sponsor. It is also talking to a telecom company and cola companies for associate sponsorships.

Spots have been taken by several companies including Sony Electronics, Maruti and Unibisc.

Kizilbash further confirms that there is no category exclusivity. This means that if Pepsi is to be signed as an associate sponsor, Coca-Cola could still air spots during the event.

Sony’s payout is Rs 49.2 bn for IPL TV rights in subcontinent

Sony Entertainment TV India (now known as Multi Screen Media) will cough out around Rs 49.20 billion for getting the Indian Premier League (IPL) rights for nine years.

Sony has taken only the TV telecast rights for the subcontinent including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “In the last agreement, Sony had the rights to extend the deal after five years. There is nothing like this in the fresh deal and Sony will have the rights for nine years. The payout is around Rs 49.20 billion,” says a source close to the development.
World Sport Group (WSG) has kept all the global and other media rights. An official announcement had been earlier made that the nine-year IPL rights running through till 2017 was valued at Rs 82 billion ($1.6 billion).

WSG had signed long-term contracts with international TV broadcasters. Those stand valid as there was a clause of revising the rates from time to time. WSG will now spend time upping the rates. Besides, it believes that the other new technology platforms will emerge during this nine-year course. Even in India, WSG has kept the other media rights except television,” the source says.

The earlier ten-year contract, which Sony couldn’t protect, was worth $918 million for telecast and $108 million for promotion of the tournament. Sony, the source says, had paid $40 million for the first of the ten-year deal it had with IPL.

ESPN Star Sports to air Champions League in HD

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has lined up a series of innovative and new features to create the presentation of the Champions League tournament that begins December 3, 2008 in India. One of the firsts includes a High Definition (HD) telecast of the championship, making it the first HD telecast for any sporting event in the Indian subcontinent.

Another first will be the use of as many as 34 cameras at each venue to cover all the matches – the highest number of cameras used to cover any multi venue cricket tournament to date. It will include many interesting angles like aerial views with Fly cameras, a boundary side field camera to showcase fielding and a new mid-wicket camera position to highlight running between the wickets that will deliver another new viewing dimension to viewers.

ESS has also been appointed the preferred bidder as the global television production partner for the Champions League 2020 tournament by Champions League 2020. The sports channel recently acquired global commercial rights of the league for a period of 10 years after a successful bid. ESS and Champions League 2020 are currently finalising the necessary long form agreement.

Manu Sawhney, managing director, ESPN Star Sports, said, “Champions League 2020 is the marquee global tournament where only the top Twenty20 club teams from top cricketing nations qualify to compete for the greatest honour, to be adjudged as the Champion of Champions. This World Championship therefore positions itself as a one of its kind international tournament.”

Lalit Modi, chairman, Champions League 2020, said, “We are very pleased to award the global production rights to ESS. We are confident that with many new innovative and unique features that ESS had planned for the inaugural Champions League 2020, fans across the globe can look forward to the most compelling and riveting action on television.”

James Sutherland, CEO, Cricket Australia, said, “With ESPN Star as our global production partner as well as the global commercial rights holder, we are confident that this fantastic new competition will be shown in a manner that will truly revolutionize the game of cricket.”

Gerald Majola, CEO, Cricket South Africa, said, “I am confident the high quality production and global broadcast of the Champions League 2020 will ignite the passion of cricket lovers the world over.”

Neo Cricket gains over GECs in advertising pie

Sports channels are the true gainers in the stalemate between television producers and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE). With re-runs blunting fare on Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC), advertisers are moving money to sports channels as there were signs last week that viewers are switching over.

With the stalemate hitting the GEC, corporates appear to be queuing up to advertise on cricket telecasts. Neo Sports has attracted sponsors for the India-England series at significantly higher rates than what it just received for the concluded India-Australia series.

Though cricket continues to be the religion of the masses, a GEC that showcases ’saas-bahu’ serials is the largest receiver of advertising revenue. It is also the most expensive genre for investment.

Neo Sports had expected to get Rs 285 crore for the entire season of cricket, from October to December. It roped in deals worth Rs 100 crore for the India-Australia series. But increased corporate interest in cricket and the GEC imbroglio could add to the numbers.

For the India-Australia series, the channel had eight sponsors. Airtel, Hero Honda and Toyota were principal sponsors, bagged for Rs 8-10 crore each. The five associate sponsors, at Rs 4-6 crore, were Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Pidilite, HDFC Standard Life, Nivea and Perfetti. Each 10-second spot was hawked at Rs 1 lakh.

Sponsorship rates have jumped for the ongoing India-England series. Hero Honda, Airtel and Microsoft have been roped in as principal sponsors at Rs 12 crore each, while RBS and Pidilite continue to stay on as associate sponsors.

Speaking to us, Abhishek Verma, head, marketing and communications, Neo Sports Broadcast, says, “Presently, the most effective and efficient property on Indian television is cricket. We added two sponsors, Microsoft and Proctor and Gamble.”

It is learnt that the new batch of associate sponsors have come on board at Rs 8-12 crore each, a 100 % jump over rates for the earlier match. Each 10-second spot is being hawked for Rs 2.5 to 2.75 lakh, again a 150% hike over the previous match.

In an interesting twist, rival sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports has also decided to piggy-back on the success and has been roped in as an associate sponsor for the India-England telecasts. The Champions League, to be broadcast on ESPN, will be played from December 3-10 and ESPN will use the time to draw in more viewers.

Hong Kong Sixes live on Ten Sports

Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, the biggest cricket extravaganza of Far East, will be available live and exclusive on Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in the Sub-continent.

The Hong Kong Cricket Sixes is fully sanctioned by the ICC and is the sport’s longest-running and most high-profile sixes tournament. The 17th edition of the tournament, which has been graced by almost every superstar of contemporary cricket, will be played at the Kowloon Cricket Club on November 8-9.

Eight teams are taking part in the Sixes – Pakistan, India, England and South Africa will contest the Bradman Group while the All-Stars, defending champions Sri Lanka, Australia and hosts Hong Kong will do battle in the Sobers Group. The top two teams in each pool after day one will progress to the Cup on day two. The highlight of Saturday will surely be the clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, which is scheduled as the final match of the day.

Zee Turner: MSOs/LCOs shall sign Ten Sports agreement

Zee Turner, the largest distribution house in the country, and which holds the rights to distribute Ten Sports, has decided to block the sports channel for all those cable operators, who do not sign up the ‘Ten Sports Agreement’ with the company before the India – Sri Lanka series, which begins on July 23.

The Delhi High Court passed an order on July 18, 2008 granting injunction in favour of Zee Turner, thereby restraining all such MSOs/LCOs, who have not executed a subscription agreement with Zee Turner and who are resorting to unauthorized transmission of the sports channel.

The Court was further pleased to appoint local commissioners across the country and has also provided police assistance in case of unauthorized transmission leading to piracy of signals of Ten Sports, including coverage of the India – Sri Lanka series.

Zee Turner, in addition has also deployed a Special Task Force (STF) to check piracy of the channel all over the country, which will take appropriate action against any operator found guilty of piracy.

M. S. Gill lashes out at DD for ignoring Junior Asia Cup

With the ongoing Junior Asia Cup hockey tournament going largely unnoticed, a miffed M. S. Gill, Union Sports Minister, lashed out at the public broadcaster Doordarshan for ignoring the event, while lamenting that the private channels too have got their priorities wrong.

Gill said though a large number of public wanted to see the ongoing eight-nation tournament in Hyderabad, Doordarshan hardly sounded interested because ‘it would not fill their coffers’.

“I’m sorry to say that Doordarshan is not showing the tournament. I tried to resolve it but apparently failed because they wanted to make money out of it,” a dejected Gill said.

Reminding DD of its duties as the public broadcaster to telecast events of national interest, Gill said, “I certainly see the duty which DD should be discharging for Indian sports. They should not always be thinking of earning and earning,there is a limit to it.”

Gill was equally upset with the private channels for largely ignoring the event. “I was very disappointed with what I saw last night in the major bulletins. There was this hard-fought match between India and Pakistan, which India won 3-1. But what did I find? The first story was about Sania Mirza losing in straight sets to a junior girl in Stanford in a minor tournament. Second story was Ronaldinho leaving Barcelona for AC Milan for $30 million perhaps. I want to ask what is the relevance of this news in a country where footballers don’t get their TA-DA in Santosh Trophy?”

Neo Sports to air Le Mans 24 hour race on June 14

Neo Sports channel will broadcast the Le Mans 24 hour motor race, on June 14, 6.30 pm onwards.

Started in the year 1923, the Le Mans 24 hours race has been France’s most coveted and historic sporting event. Last year, the Le Mans 24 race witnessed 2,50,952 spectators and a TV audience of 628 million throughout the 108 countries, which broadcasted the race.

Usually entailing a number of 55 cars, the Le Mans race brings together cars of different categories and classes. Instead of focusing on the ability of a car company to build the fastest machines of the time, the Le Mans check the ability of manufacturers to build sporty yet reliable cars.

Meanwhile, at the time of filing of this report, Peugeot pulverised the Le Mans 24 hours race record and filled the top three places after first qualifying for the weekend’s 24 Hours sportscar race.

French driver Stephane Sarrazin, partnered by Portugal’s Pedro Lamy and Austrian Alex Wurz in the diesel-engined 908, demolished the existing record by 7.8 seconds with a time of three minutes, 18.513 seconds in the first session. Final qualifying ends late on Thursday.

Ten Sports to air Hong Kong Cricket Sixes

The Hong Kong Cricket Sixes will be broadcasted on Ten Sports, on its own channels in India, Middle East, North America, continental Europe, Hong Kong and Indonesia.

The channel is also securing commitments from broadcasters to show the event in all other major cricketing markets, including the UK and Australia.

The event will be staged at the Kowloon Cricket Club on November 8-9, and the sports channel will show action for a total of 16 hours over these two days.

Mark Burns, Tournament director, Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, says, “We are very happy to have secured what is, quite simply, the most significant broadcasting deal in the 16-year history of our event.”

Peter Hutton, senior Vice-president, Ten Sports, said, “We are delighted to add to our growing portfolio of international cricket rights an event that has firmly established itself on the world cricket calendar and provides a unique sporting and social experience.”

“With Ten Sports broadcasting the event on its own channels, plus commitments from broadcasters in the other major cricketing markets, pictures of the tournament will be available in over 100 million homes worldwide.” claims Hutton.

Neo Sports steals show at PromaxBDA with 11 awards

Amidst the boisterous atmosphere at the Promax/BDA India 2008 award ceremony, it was Neo Sports Broadcast that came out on top winning 11 awards (four golds).

NDTV Imagine CEO Sameer Nair was conferred a special gold award by the promax/BDA community as an acknowledgement for promoting Promax in India.

Neo’s ‘Gas’, a promo that was created to establish the tension factor during India-Pakistan series, made a clean sweep in the best sports promo, best sound design and the best script category.

The silvers that Neo bagged were for the best out-of-house station image promo (Power Play), best promotional campaign (tension), best sports promo (Rusty Nail), best launch campaign (Tension), best sound design (Gas), best editing in a promo(Gas) and best animation(Stumps) category. MTV India and VH1 won four awards each under various categories. Zee Entertainment Enterprises, NGC Network India and Multi Screen Media (new name of Sony) won a total of seven awards each under various categories. While Zee won four golds, NGC took away three and Multi Screen Media bagged two golds. Zee Entertainment won gold for best children’s programme promo (Li’l Champs), best print ad (Zee Next campaign), best original logo design (ICL) and best holiday/seasonal/special event promo (Amitabh b’day special). It won three silver for Funniest Spot (ICL 2007 Delhi Jets), best print ad (Midday Mate SMS) and best print campaign (Zee Next print campaign).

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NGC won golds for best public service announcement (One Car Less), best collateral material(Trapped) and best documentary promo (Trapped). It won the silver awards for best collateral material (My Brilliant Brain), best multi-media campaign (History Rocks), best infotainment promo (The Fight) and best documentary promo (World’s Most Dangerous Drugs). INX Media, Filmy and The Cell won four awards each under various categories, which include both silver and gold. While Star India bagged three awards, Times Global Broadcasting and GenX Entertainment (Bindass) won two awards each. Given below is a detailed list of the winners for Promax/BDA India 2008:

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Category Entery Title Company Award Best In House Station Image Promo Ice Age 2 ID Star India (Star Gold) Silver Best In House Station Image Promo VH1 Sunday Brunch Promo VH1 India Gold Best Out-Of-House Station Image Promo Power Play Neo Sports Broadcast Silver Best Out-Of-House Station Image Promo Always On My Mind ESPN Star Sports Gold Best Promotional Campaign Tension Neo Sports Broadcast Silver Best Promotional Campaign James Bond Festival Star India (Star Gold) Gold Best Movie Promo Super Hero Clint Pix – Multi Screen Media Silver Best Movie Promo 13 Tzemati UTV ETL Gold Best Drama Promo Amber-Dhara Multi Screen Media Silver Best Drama Promo Left Right Left Sab – Multi Screen Media Gold Best Sports Promo Rusty Nail Neo Sports Broadcast Silver Best Sports Promo Gas Neo Sports Broadcast Gold Best Comedy Promo La Lola Promo Firangi Silver Best Comedy Promo Sansui Boogie Woogie Multi Screen Media Gold Best Children’s Programme Promo Sansui Boogie Woogie Multi Screen Media Silver Best Children’s Programme Promo Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Li’l Champs – Ashayein Zee Entertainment Enterprises Gold Best Entertainment Promo Sansui Boogie Woogie Multi Screen Media Silver Best Entertainment Promo VH1 Sunday Brunch Promo VH1 India Gold Best Infotainment Promo The Fight NGC Network India Silver Best Infotainment Promo On The Job MTV India Gold Best Documentary Promo World’s Most Dangerous Drugs NGC Network India Silver Best Documentary Promo Trapped NGC Network India Gold Best News/Current Affairs Promo Devil’s Advocate The Cell Silver Best News/Current Affairs Promo The Gujrat Verdict NDTV Silver Best News/Current Affairs Promo Whose City Is It Anyways? The Cell Gold Best Sales & Marketing Presentation Angootha INX Media Silver Best Sales & Marketing Presentation TME AV The Cell Gold Best Holiday/Seasonal/Special Event Promo New Year MTV India Silver Best Holiday/Seasonal/Special Event Promo Amitabh B’day Special Zee Entertainment Enterprises Gold Best Multi-Media Campaing History Rocks NGC Network India Silver Best Multi-Media Campaign Bathroom Singer Virals Filmy Gold Best Launch Campaign Tension NEO Sports Broadcast Silver Best Launch Campaign Ugesh Sarcar’s 3rd Degree GenX Entertainment Gold Best Sound Design Rusty Nail Neo Sports Broadcast Silver Best Sound Design Gas Neo Sports Broadcast Gold Best Script VH1 Sunday Brunch Promo VH1 India Silver Best Script Gas Neo Sports Broadcast Gold Best Editing In A Promo Gas Neo Sports Broadcast Silver Best Editing In A Promo 10-3-8 Movies On Time Everytime Filmy Gold Funniest Spot ICL 2007 – Delhi Jets Zee Entertainment Enterprises Silver Funniest Spot Eat This MTV India Gold Best Inteactive Promo Bollywood Ka Boss- Irani Cafe TVC Filmy Silver Best Inteactive Promo A Promise To Mumbai Times Global Broadcasting Gold Best Public Service Announcement Child Sexual Abuse The Cell Silver Best Public Service Announcement One Car Less NGC Network India Gold Something For Nothing Cricket At 11 ESPN Star Sports Silver Something For Nothing A Promise To Mumbai Times Global Broadcasting Gold Best Programme Packaging VH1 Hit Factory VH1 India Silver Best Programme Packaging VH1 Sunday Brunch Packaging VH1 India Gold Best On-Air Channel Ident 9X – Love INX Media Silver Best On-Air Channel Ident Bindaas Identity GenX Entertainment Gold Best Print Ad Midday Mate SMS Zee Entertainment Enterprises Silver Best Print Ad Zee Next Campaign Zee Entertainment Enterprises Gold Best Print Campaign Zee Next Channel Print Campaign Zee Entertainment Enterprises Silver Best Print Campaign Bolloywood Ka Boss Filmy Gold Best Collateral Material My Brilliant Brain NGC Network India Silver Best Collateral Material Trapped NGC Network India Gold Best Animation Stumps Neo Sports Broadcast Silver Best Animation Dinosaur Neo Sports Broadcast Gold Best Original Logo Design Dahhej INX Media Silver Best Original Logo Design ICL Logo Zee Entertainment Enterprises Gold Best Programme Title Sequence NSH MTV India Silver Best Programme Title Sequence IFFA Awards Packaging Star India (Star Plus) Gold Best On-Air Channel Branding Pix Pix – Multi Screen Media Silver Best On-Air Channel Branding 9X – Launch INX – Media Gold